The Importance of PIAAC

Boost Skills for Jobs and Well-Being

The low-skilled are more likely than others to be unemployed, have bad health and earn much less, according to the first OECD Survey of Adult Skills. Countries with greater inequality in skills proficiency also have higher income inequality.

Webinars

Skills on the Move: Migrants in the Survey of Adult Skills

Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education & Skills at OECD, hosted a Q&A webinar on November 9, 2018 about the new report Skills on the Move: Migrants in the Survey of Adult Skills. Drawing on data from PIAAC, this report provides new evidence on differences in migrants’ characteristics and contexts and considers how these relate to the skills migrants possess.

Low-skilled Service Workers

National Skills Coalition's Director of Upskilling Policy Amanda Bergson-Shilcock presented findings from her new report Foundational Skills in the Service Sector report which draws on PIAAC data to shed light on working adults ages 16-64 who have limited basic skills.

Time to Reskill Webinar

The Time to Reskill webinar was held by the U.S. Department of Education and the American Institutes for Research on March 13, 2014. It was an opportunity to learn about the PIAAC data and the OECD's special report on America's low-skilled population, Time for the U.S. to Reskill?, as well as to engage in a focused discussion about the issues facing adult education.

PIAAC, What Now?

Presenters at the U.S. Conference on Adult Literacy spoke about the importance of the PIAAC study. They discussed tools, resources, tactics, and strategies for programs interested in using the PIAAC study as a way to advance their public policy agenda and to raise awareness.

Education Policy Briefing Series

Experts from the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor discuss findings from the Survey of Adult Skills and what the United States has to learn from other countries.

PIAAC Engagement Session

An archived webcast of OVAE's kick-off event for developing a National Action Plan based on the PIAAC results.

How Boosting Adult Educational Skills Can Grow the Middle Class

A recorded event by the Center for American Progress in joint partnership with OECD, discussing PIAAC results and implications. For more information on the event, please click here.

The Skills of Immigrants: What PIAAC Tells Us

Migration Policy Institute (MPI) authors present their findings and discuss what their analysis reveals about the literacy of the first- and second-generation immigrant population in the United States, the U.S. education and workforce training system, and the implications for the future of the U.S. labor market and its role in the global economy.

Presentations

TEDxExeter: Why you should love statistics

Alan Smith, a data visualization expert, uses PIAAC data to explain why numeracy skills matter in a world where working with statistics can help us understand ourselves better.

TEDxPeachtree: Do we care about us?

Using data from PIAAC, Daphne Greenberg from Georgia State University explains the cost of low literacy in the United States, its impact on society, and what we need to do to improve adult skills.

Secretary of Education Discusses PIAAC

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sat down with Matt Lauer and other experts in the field of education and workforce development to discuss the implications of the latest findings from PIAAC at NBC's Education Nation Summit.

Interviews

Education and Labor Markets

Jack Buckley and Ellen Scully-Russ talked about education statistics and labor markets around the world and in the U.S. They spoke about U.S. labor and education statistics, workplace skills and employee demographics, and how American’s rank compared to other countries.

Young Adults' Job Skills and the Modern Workplace

Anthony Carnevale talked about the PIAAC results on C-SPAN's Washington Journal. Mr. Carnavale said that while in the past generally only upper management needed critical thinking, problem-solving, and other higher level skills, the modern economy requires these skills from most workers.

OECD Forum - PIAAC and Skills

Tom Brokaw, Thomas Freidman, Michelle Rhee, and other policy talk about PIAAC and its implications for economic research and policies.

Interview with Andreas Schleicher

Andreas Schleicher, Special Advisor on Education Policy at the OECD, sits down for an interview to spell out the objectives and purposes of the PIAAC survey.

PIAAC Background Questionnaire

Matthias von Davier, Research Director in the Research & Development Division at Educational Testing Service, explains aspects of the PIAAC background questionnaire.

Measuring Skills Mismatch with PIAAC

What does the PIAAC Background Questionnaire – and the Skills Used at Work – add to our understanding of the links between skills, employment, and well-being? Does it help us better understand the phenomenon called “skills mismatch”?

International skills assessments at home and abroad

Panelists from four countries compare and contrast first reactions to PIAAC results and their expectations about how the findings may inform policy and programs on adult literacy and skills.

PIAAC and the broader skills strategy

William Thorn, PIAAC Senior Analyst at the OECD, places PIAAC in the context of the OECD Skills Strategy. He described how the OECD has attempted to broaden and improve its measures of "human capital" and looked at the new measures included in the PIAAC survey.

Cut-offs and Levels in PIAAC

William Thorn, PIAAC Senior Analyst at the OECD, provides an overview of the proficiency levels used to report results from PIAAC, highlighting the similarities and differences between PIAAC and previous adult literacy surveys.